Two pints a week could cut risk of heart attack

Drinking two pints of beer a week could help cut the risk of heart attacks in women by up to a third, according to research carried out by the University of Gothenburg.

The conclusion follows a study of more than 1,500 women over a 50 year period, tracking the frequency of their consumption of beer, wine or spirits from “daily” to “nothing in the past 10 years”.

Over a 32-year follow-up period, 185 women had a heart attack, 162 suffered a stroke, 160 developed diabetes and 345 developed cancer.

Comparing instances of heart attacks to the frequency of alcohol consumption, researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg found that women who drink beer at most once or twice per week run a 30% lower risk of heart attack, compared with both heavy drinkers and women who never drink beer.

The study was not able to confirm if wine carried the same protective affect, while drinking spirits appeared to increase the risk of cancer.

“Previous research also suggests that alcohol in moderate quantities can have a certain protective effect, but there is still uncertainty as to whether or not this really is the case”, said Dominique Hange, researcher at Sahlgrenska Academy. “Our results have been checked against other risk factors for cardiovascular disease, which substantiates the findings. At the same time, we were unable to confirm that moderate wine consumption has the same effect, so our results also need to be confirmed through follow-up studies.”

Conversely, the study showed that those with high consumption of spirits (defined as more frequent than once or twice per month), had an almost 50% higher risk of dying of cancer, compared with those who drink less frequently.

The study was published online in the Scandinavian Journal of Primary Health Care.